Running Free
by JustAnotherObsessedFangirl
Summary: Sheppard drinks a tea off world and it forces his wolf out, leading to his team to be tracking a wolfed out him through the woods with no idea its the real him and not a weird off world nightmare thing they normally deal with. WOLFBLOOD SHEPPARD!


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise.**

**Sheppard POV**

"We are honoured by your visit to our world Lantean's" the village leader, Lurgno bows his head.

"We are honoured to be here" Teyla smiles politely.

Someone enters the hut with a pot of tea.

"Before we can begin talk of trade , it is customary to share a cup of Voadrirn tea" Lurgno tells us, taking the pot and pouring the tea before the person bows and leaves.

"Sure" McKay does his best not to look unhappy, we've done meeting customs on 100's of planets. He knows by now we don't care for his whining about the taste of these teas.

Ronon hands me a cup of the tea.

It has a odd smell, I take a quick stiff. Yack, this is not going to taste good. Looking at the cup I see my hand, my veins are turning black.

I quickly take a deep breath and push down my wolf, the last thing I need right now is to wolf out, I'll talk to Carson when I get back and see if he can get me something to help me stay calm. With Lorne back on Earth to see his sister my workload as doubled and so has my stress. I need to be more careful.

"The other leader drinks first" Lurgno tells me kindly, gesturing with his cup.

"Of course" I agree before taking a big sip, oh that is bad. I really need some meat, I could go for a lamb right about now, wonder if they have them on this planet…..

My thoughts die when I see my hand hasn't gone back to normal, in fact the black veins are spreading. I move my hands under the table hoping they won't see. This is not stress, my wolf has to be reacting to the tea, it's the only thing that makes sense.

"Sheppard!" Ronon speaks next to me, sounding alarmed.

"What?" I snap, why am I snapping? Dammit, need to rain in the wolf and my temper. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9…..

"Your face" Ronon speaks.

The darkness in my veins must of spread.

"Could it be the tea?" Teyla suggests, concern all over her face.

McKay pushes his tea away, (not having had any yet) "Okay lets get you back to Jennifer" he sighs like this is a big pain in the ass for him.

"I'm fine!" I growl, a real animal growl.

"I have never seen the Voadrirn tea do this to anyone" Lurgno frowns.

"John is not from our galaxy" Teyla tells him kindly, "He may have different reactions to things that we find common place."

Why is she talking about this? I let out another growl, god I need to run, was this hut always this small? I need to get out, I really need to get out and run.

I run her off mid-sentence by getting up and going for the door.

Ronon jumps up and blocks my way, "Were you going?" he glares.

I growl back with my own glare, feeling my eyes turn yellow. "Out of my way" I feel my claws come out…what am I doing? I need to get control before I hurt someone. My wolf is different I can feel it, it's almost like...a Morwal. When I turn I won't be totally in control. "Ronon, I need to go" I tell, trying to sound calm.

"The only place your going is to see Jennifer!" McKay tells me with his own glare, only blinking a little at the yellow eyes.

No, I can feel the wolf wanting out. I can't stay human much longer. "Sorry Ronon" I say before pushing him with my wolf-strength and speeding off for the woods. At least I'll get to have a good run, I haven't run free in years, as long as I can get fair enough away that the Morwal-like-thing doesn't hurt no one this might just be fun.

Still going to need one hell of a story when this where's off.

Rondey POV

"Great!" I groan as John vanishes into the woods. It doesn't need to be said, were going to spend the night in the dark, creepy woods hunting a out of his mind Sheppard. This is going to suck.

"I am sorry" Lurgno bows his head, "We have never had anyone react to it like this. We will send our best hunters and trackers after hi-"

"Don't bother, I got this" Ronon tells him, switching his blaster to stun….why was it resting on kill?

Teyla nods, checking her pack. "Thank you for your offer" she smiles at him, "But we will take care of our own."

I grab my own bag and follow them, "Gate first?" I ask.

Teyla nods, "Yes. Ronon, go ahead and start tracking John. We will tell Woolsey of that has happened."

Ronon just nods and runs off to the woods.

"I don't know how he keeps getting into this kind of crap!" I huff as we walk to the Stargate. "How many times is he going to turn into something before he learns to be careful!"

"There was no reason to think this would happen Rodney" Teyla speaks calmly, "…What do you mean, turning into?"

I raise an eyebrow, "You didn't see the eyes or the claws?"

She shakes his head, "He was facing away from me when he left." She takes a deep breath, "We must find him."

It doesn't take long to get to the gate and dial Atlantis.

_"AR-1? Your not dude to check in for another 5 hours" _Woolsey speaks as soon as the tech puts as through.

"Sheppard drank something weird and ran off into the wood with glowing eyes, black veins and claws" I tell him bluntly.

There is a long pause before Woolsey sighs, _"If this were any other team you would be calling about someone spraining an ankle" _he says tiredly.

"Yes, yes we're trouble magnets" I roll my eyes, "Now, are you going to do anything or what?"

He sighs _again "Doctor Keller, her team along with AR-4 through 12 will be there soon to help you find him."_

"Thank you Mr Woolsey" Teyla smiles.

The backup arrives within half an hour and we sent off into the woods for a night that promise to be dark, cold and possibly wet. Why couldn't he just pass out? Then I would be in the warm infirmary instead of out here.

"Okay" Jennifer walks up to us, "A sample of that tea is on its way to Atlantis. They'll test it and hopefully find something to help Sheppard soon."

"Hopefully?" I repeat the word with a raised eyebrow.

Teyla puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder before I can open my mouth again, "I am worried also. But we must be calm if we are to help him."

"Fine" I snap, why is she always telling me to calm down? I'm fine! "Let's go find that idiot before he gets himself killed" I tell her before heading for the woods.

"Ronon, how is it going?" Teyla says into her radio as we walk, the other teams having split off to search, leaving just her, Jennifer and me.

_"Weird,"_ He replies.

I grab my radio, "Weird how?" I demand.

_"Tracks start with him running, fast. Then they change."_

Jennifer blinks, "Change how?" She asks into her own radio.

_"Animal prints"_ he answers simply.

I stop in surprise, "Your saying he's turned into some kind of animal?" How the hell did tea do that?

Jennifer looks just as surprised, "How did it happen this fast?" She asks, "Normally when we see people turning into something else, it's a process over days, hours at the least. It hasn't even been a hour yet."

_"Don't know"_ Ronon replies, sounding focused. "_Whatever Sheppard turned into is big though. And on four legs."_

"Can you continue to track him Ronon?" Teyla asks him, trying to keep her worry out of her voice.

_"Of course"_ he replies like its obvious_, "I've hunted way tougher meals then Shepherd."_

"Sheppard's not going to be your dinner caveman!" I snap.

"He did not mean it that way Rodney" Jennifer tells me calmly, putting a hand on my. "We'll get him back" she soothes.

"Keep on his trail Ronon" Teyla orders him, "Which direction is he heading in?"

_"Up to the North Mountain"_ Ronon replies.

I look up to the very very very tall mountain. "Fantastic!" I groan, of course I'm going to have to climb a freaking mountain to help my idiot best friend. "Wonderful, let's get this over with" I sigh, resigned to a long and frustrating climb.

It's not long before Teyla finds the trail Ronon is following and starts tracking it too.

After about three hours and long after it gets dark we catch up with Ronon.

"Ronon" Teyla nods when we see him.

"Were is he?" I ask, trying to catch my breath. I hate Mountain climbing.

"Not here" Ronon tells us, eyes on the ground. "He's been hunting" he moves so we can see a puddle of blood and fur on the ground.

"That is not good" I frown, how out of his mind is he if he would kill some animal? We need to get him back to Atlantis.

Jennifer opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by a howl.

I freeze, "That sounded like a wolf."

Teyla and Ronon just share a confused look, "What is a wolf?" Teyla asks.

"It's kinda like a very large very vicious dog" Jennifer explains with worry.

"So now Sheppard's a werewolf?" I shake my head in disbelief, first alien vampires now Werewolves? Why does this crap have to happen to me?

"And a Werewolf is?" Ronon asks impatiently, clearly wanting to get back to tracking.

"It's a myth" Jennifer tells them, "Stories of men who turned into half wolf, half human monsters and tour innocent people to shreds. But it's just a story."

"Like how The Egyptian gods are just a myth!" I point out, "Let's face it, every weird old myth we heard growing up has a possibility to be true."

"How did people calm these werewolves in the stories?" Teyla questions.

"They didn't" I snap, "They hunted them down with pitchforks and torches and shot them with silver bullets!"

"I don't think Earth myths will help us here" Jennifer says much more kindly.

_"Samuels to Teyla" _our radios buzz.

Samuels? That's one of the guys guarding the gate.

"Yes Captain Samuels?" Teyla speaks into her radio.

_"Ma'am, Doctor Beckett just came through the Gate."_

I grab my own radio, "Did he find something to help Sheppard?" I demand, I could really use some good news right now.

_"Ummm, I don't know"_ the Captain admits. _"He came through, stopped for like three seconds to sniff the air and took off for the woods."_

I blink, what?

The sound of Ronon's blaster makes me spin around, to see a shadow in the bushes coming towards us.

"Don't shot!" Carson speaks, stepping into the Torchlight.

"How did you get here so fast?" I demand, "We've gotta be 5 miles from the gate!"

"7" Ronon corrects, putting his blaster away. "How did you find us?"

The look on Carson's face could only be described as stuck. He really doesn't want to do something and thinks he's got no choice.

"I ran" he says simply.

"7 up hill miles, in what? 4 minutes?" I blink with disbelief, "Even the wild man here can't do that!" I add gesturing to Ronon.

"Do you know what's wrong with Sheppard?" Jennifer changes the topic, "We think the tea's turned him into some kind of animal, possibly a wolf."

Carson frowns, "The tea didn't turn him lass" he sighs, "Sheppard...has always been able to turn into a wolf."

"So he's a werewolf?" I blink in disbelief before scoffing, "A wolf in shepherds clothing, who would've guessed."

Carson pushes away a amused smile at my comment. "Aye, he is what you call a werewolf, though we prefer the term Wolfblood."

"We?" I blink, you have got to be kidding me!

Carson closes his eyes and opens them yellow, "Yes Rodney, we."

I jump, "Shit!"

"Rodney, we are the same as we have always been" Carson speaks calmly.

I take a deep breath, he is right and I have definitely seen weirder. "Okay" I sigh, "So why is Sheppard going full wolf?"

He winces, "That is partially my fault I'm afraid" he admits, "See, we Wolfbloods have a lot of... differences that make gate travel difficult."

"Like?" Jennifer asks with intrigue.

"An instinctual fear of fire for one" he admits, "Or our tie to Earth's moon, being separated from it puts us into a rather deep sleep. Not something we can really help, so I created a compound to suppress the genes that make us do and need those things."

"And something in the tea stopped your compound from working?" Jennifer questions.

"Aye" he sighs, "Not just that,I think it's brought out something very much like a Morwal in him."

"Morwal?" Teyla asks.

"Right" Carson shakes his head, "It's what those myths talk about. The out of control ferocious beast, normally we can control ourselves as the wolf, but with a Morwal..."

"It controls him" Ronon finishes.

"What else did you suppress?" Jennifer questions.

"Why?" Carson asks.

"If it's all coming out now there might be something he does that can help us" she answers.

"Or leads to us getting eaten" I frown, if I thought tonight was going to suck earlier knowing he's a werewolf makes it sucked 12 times more.

"You have the same thing running through your veins do you not?" Teyla questions with sudden concern. "What if you are to come cross this plant as we walk?"

"It won't do the same to me" Carson reassures, "I had to make a different variant of serum for Sheppard. I've already run the tests, this plant doesn't affect the variance I use."

"Why?" Ronon asks.

"Because he's from wild stock" Carson says like that explains everything. "Right, most of us live among humans and have for hundreds of years. That created a sort of domestic gene, like you'd find in cats. But, Wild Wolfblood's don't have that mutation and it makes them genetically different from us tames. So Sheppard needed a different version."

Wild? You have got to be kidding me, "So his Mom was wild or something, why does it matter?" I question just wanted to get this chat over with and go find my best friend.

"Sheppard was born wild" Carson corrects, "He was raised in in the Forest till he was 14 and his adoptive family found him. Because of that he has many instincts he was forced to suppress to get by in the human world. The biggest concern right now is his taste for flesh. He hasn't hunted and eaten raw animals since he was 14 and now that he's got his taste back for it he's not gonna want to give it up."

"So what do we do?" Ronon asks impatiently.

"We need to knock him out and bring him back to my lab, I can correct it there" Carson tells us.

"So I'll knock him out" Ronon takes his blaster back out.

"I think you'll find he's harder to track than ya think" Carson admits.

"Why?" I groan, what else hasn't he told us?

"Sheppard can use Eolas" he tells us as though it should be a huge deal. "Eolas is an ability that is basically lost to us tames. It allows the person to see everything around them for miles" he drops that bomb.

"Your saying John can see us talking about him right now?" This shouldn't be possible.

"Aye, and hear us" he nods.

"Why can your people no longer do this?" Teyla asks curiously.

"Too much technology" he answers, "When the Radio was first invented the city wolfs found it overwhelmed them when using Eolas, made them pass out, it even killed some. So they stopped using it around Technology and as time went on..."

"You forgot how to use it at all" I finish for him.

"Aye" he agrees.

"This is good" I mutter, taking out my pad.

"How is this good Rodney?" Jennifer asks with disbelief, "Someone uses their radio at the wrong moment and It could kill him!"

"His ability is affected by technology" I say impatiently, "That means it affects technology back. I can use the teams radios to create an net, then track the disturbance."

"And if your net kills him?" Ronon points out, his worry barely hidden.

I wave him off, "Please" I scoff, "I got this."

We walk as I work, Ronon and Teyla leading us, with Carson surprisingly chiming in now and then with things he can smell and hear that might lead us the right way.

As I walk I also listen to Carson and Jennifer talk.

"If you needed this compound to be off world, how did you function when Michael had you?" Jennifer asks, voice full of curiosity.

"I convinced him I had something only found in the Milky Way and needed to make something to keep myself alive" he replies.

"What about full moons?" She asks before pausing, "Unless that is just myth."

"It's not" he chuckles, "We do turn into wolfs every full moon. Thankfully it has to be Earths full moon, so I was fine in that regard."

"And the genetic difference?" She presses, "Surely he noticed your DNA was so different from other humans he was experimenting on, on the same topic why haven't myself or anyone else at the SGC noticed?"

"I was able to convince him it was a Milky Way thing, that the Ancients made the two groups of humans differently and that showed in the DNA. As for the SGC, well there are a fair few of us working there and we work together to keep the secret" he answers easily.

"Why didn't you just turn into a wolf, rip his face and run?" Ronon adds with his own curiosity.

"The facilities I was held in were reinforced to hold his hybrids. He didn't realise it but they were strong enough to keep me in also" he answers I bit more awkwardly, I think the questions on his captivity are starting to get to him.

Thankfully Teyla sees this too, "Come, we have a long way to go."

We speed up our pace, talk of Carson forgotten.

"Got him!" I announce after another hour of walking. "He's half a mile that way" I point south.

"And you are sure this is not hurting him?" Teyla checks.

I roll my eyes, "No faith in my skills. I thought you'd know by now that I'm always right!"

Ronon snorts, "Sure."

I send him a glare, "It won't hurt Sheppard. But it only works when he's using that freaky trick so…." The light on the screen goes away, showing he stopped using it. "Come on, he's getting away!"

Ronon takes the lead and with me and Carson jumping in when we finds sighs of him, we catch sight of the white and black wolf within an hour.

I can't help staring, his fur is even more messes than his hair is as a human. I didn't think that's possible.

"He is magnificent" Teyla stares at the, admittedly awesome looking wolf.

Yellow eyes lock on us and he growls, paws on the dead body of a kinda-lamb.

"That is gross" I frown, how can he be eating that?

Sheppard growls again, moving forward and jumping at us at full speed.

Ronon jumps in the way, pushing him back down to ground.

Sheppard lets out another growl, looking ready to rip our throats out.

"Sheppard! mae'n rhaid i chi dawelu, peidiwch â gadael i'r Morwal eich rheoli, chi sy'n ei reoli!" Carson tells him with a determined look**. ("Sheppard! you have to calm down, do not let the Morwal control you, you control it!," sorry to anyone who does speak Welsh for the Google Translate that I imagine is awful.)**

"What the hell is that?" I wonder.

"Welsh" Carson says simply, "It's the Wild pack he was born into's first language. My Welsh isn't all that great, but I imagine in the state he's in, he's more likely to listen to that."

Sheppard's not American? What other unexpected shit am I going to find out about him tonight?

Sheppard does stop growling, staring at Carson.

Carson bows his head, "Fy alffa os gwelwch yn dda, gadewch imi eich helpu chi." **("My alpha please, allow me to help you.")**

Sheppard stares him down.

The stare clearly means something in the wolf world, cause Carson gets to his knees before turning into a grey and brown wolf himself, and getting low to the ground in a clear submissive position.

Sheppard approaches Carson carefully, walking around him in a circle and sniffing the air. Then he relaxes a small bit and goes back to his kinda-lamb.

Carson does the same, sharing it with him.

"Gross" I wrinkle my nose in disgust.

After a few minutes Carson looks up at us and to Ronon's blaster, then to Sheppard.

Ronon gets the message loud and clear, taking it out and knocking Sheppard out in less than 10 seconds.

Jennifer runs over and injections him with some sort of Tranquilizer, to keep him out.

Carson turns back to human and wipes his mouth, looking as disgusted as I feel. "I like my meat as much as the next Wolfblood, but I ain't wild, I need it cooked" he then washes his mouth out with water and spits it out.

"Come on" Ronon says, grabbing the still wolfed out team leader and throwing him over his shoulder. "Lets get back."

The walk is annoying and by the end I want to sleep for a week, but surprisingly Sheppard doesn't wake up and kill us all.

The next morning I go to the isolation room to see Sheppard, not a wolf but Sheppard.

"You fixed him" I note when I see Carson.

"Aye" Carson nods proudly, looking like he didn't sleep at all last night.

"Well done Carson" Teyla smiles at him.

"Can we talk to him?" Ronon asks staring through the glass.

Carson nods "Aye, He should be waking up any minute."

"What did you tell Woolsey?" I ask, this is going to be chaos, Homeworld security won't be happy about this.

"That it was the plant" Jennifer tells us walking in, looking like she hasn't slept either. "Carson, some of his Wolfblood doctors and myself been up all night, helping Sheppard and coming up with believable science for how the plant works."

"We don't want the secret getting out" Carson tells us with a pleading look, "Not even to the SGC."

I share a look with Teyla and Ronon, they never really got why Earth insist on keeping the secret from its own people, and they don't seem to get this either.

"Fine" I nod my agreement, the world's governments might be ready for aliens, but I doubt any of them would react well to the news of sharing our planet.

Teyla And Ronon follow after me, nodding their own agreement.

Carson lets out a relieved breath, "Good."

"Carson?"

We all turn when Sheppard speaks from bed, now sitting up and looking at us with confusion.

We leave the observation room at record speed and go straight to the isolation room.

Sheppard stares us down when the door opens, masking all emotion. "So you know" is all he says.

"Yes" I agree before glaring, "Why the he'll didn't you tell me!" I demand, noting the look Ronon and Teyla send me I quickly correct, "Us, I mean us!"

"You know you can trust us John" Teyla tells him, "So why did you not?"

"It's not about trust" he sighs, "It's the secret. Keeping what we are from humans is a really big deal to us. Rodney you know people on Earth aren't ready."

I can't deny that, if people on Earth found out they would freak, almost as much as they would if they found out about the Stargate. "Yeah they would panic" I agree, "But we aren't 'people on earth' Sheppard. I see weirder things than werewolves on a daily basis."

Teyla nods in agreement, "We are not the fearful and hatefilled people of Earth, John. We are your friends."

"You should have told us" Ronon agrees with a unhappy look.

"I couldn't" he disagrees, "You guys don't get how BIG the secret is for us. I couldn't tell you."

Something about the way he says that changes Teyla's attitude, she mellows out and nods her head in understanding.

I open my mouth to tell Sheppard I don't get it, but Teyla shoots me a look, the look she always gives me when she knows I'm about to say something disrespectful to someone else's culture.

_Culture,_ the word hits me like a blasters bolt. Werewolves are real and have been hiding from humans for 100s of years. To hide like that, for all of them to hide it had to become a part of everything they did, part of their culture. As much as I want to I can't be pissed at Sheppard for doing something he grew up with and believed in his whole life. "Okay fine" I sigh, "Not angry."

Ronon must of caught Teyla's look to cause he just nods.

"Glad that's all cleared up then" Carson smiles, reminding me that he and Jennifer are here.

"We'll leave you alone to talk" Jennifer smiles, before sending Carson a look. "We have a long, overdue talk to have about keeping vital patient information secret." With one last look she drags him out of the room.

Sheppard grins, "Glad I'm not him right now" then he looks to us and the grin drops, "Or am I the one who's about to have the worst talk?"

"We do have many questions" Teyla admits, sitting down next to him.

We follow suit.

"Okay" he agrees reluctantly, "What did Carson tell you?"

"You're a werewolf, you can see everything for miles if there isn't tech around and you were born wild" I count off on my fingers.

"Wolfblood" he corrects with a look.

"Sure, sure dog breath" I roll my eyes.

John rolls his eyes, showing he didn't take the dog breath thing seriously.

"What does born wild mean?" Ronon asks, his own curiosity shining through.

"On Earth pretty much everyone is born in a hospital, grows up in a house and goes to school" he starts simply. "But my childhood was more like someone here in Pegasus. I was born in the woods, had no contact with anyone but my pack, lived in a hut, and we travelled all over to hunt and keep humans off our tracks."

"Until you were 14" Teyla checks, "Then you started living as a human?"

He nods, not looking at us. "My Dad took me on a hunting trip away from the pack, I wondered off to a human town. I'd been curious about humans for years, so I ignored my parents warnings and went" he pauses for a moment, unreadable emotions all of his face. "Turned out a tame Wolfblood Patrick Sheppard was visiting a friend, he saw me, knew what I was and decided to take me home and tame me."

"Why would he do such a thing?" Teyla asks, putting a hand on top of his, her face showing what she would do if someone from a more advanced world dared to take a child of her people.

"Political brownie points" he growls, "Taming a wild Wolfblood is a hard task, being able to do it won him a reputation with the other rich Tames."

"That's why you hated him" Ronon says, probably thinking about something from Patrick Sheppard's funeral.

Sheppard nods, "He was a asshole. But….I won't lie, I like living the tame life."

"And your pack? Your real parents?" I ask, pissed at a dead man.

"I never went back" he admits, "They wouldn't let a tame back anyway."

"You don't know unless you try" Teyla tells him forcefully, "If you were one of my people, I would want to know your alive, even if you were no longer one of us."

He shakes his head, "You don't get it. The wild packs _hate_ tames almost as much as they hate humans. I wouldn't be welcome."

"You deserve closure on that part of your life" Ronon tells him, clearly speaking from personal experience. "Next time were on Earth the four of us are going" there's no room for argument in his tone.

"Us?" John raises an eyebrow.

"You think were not going with you?" I raise an eyebrow back. "Your stuck with us Sheppard."

He smiles slightly, "You know this is going to go horribly right?"

"It always does" I smile right back.

**I am thinking about writing a sequel with them and Sheppard's pack. If you guys want it them I will.**


End file.
